My friend Daniel gave me this recipe. I don’t know where he got it from. He was born in Peru, which to my knowledge is not known for it’s pizza. He is a good cook and very smart guy.
We don’t make this often enough. It is so easy to make and home-made pizza is the best! I have used store-bought pizza dough and it is not nearly as good as this.
I think the last time we had this is when we still owned il Fustino and we were having our monthly employee meeting and we had each employee make their own pizza. Had a great time, ate lots of pizza and employees took extras home to spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends. One last good story, made this for my Mother-in-law during her last visit. Gave her instructions that “less is more.” No…No…No my Mother-in-law believes more is more! She piled my 1/4″ crust with 2″ of topping, then pronounced my pizza bad. Really Mom? Harsh! If you want more, make 2 pizzas!
Just a word about making pizza at home: “Less is More!” I tell people (Mother-in-law) to take it easy with the quantity of ingredients on their pizza. The more you pile on the less crisp the crust will be. I am a “thin crust” person. I like it crispy and I hate it soggy.
You can use prepared spaghetti sauce for the topping. Spread very thinly; too much sauce will keep the dough from cooking completely.
Get yourself a pizza stone. Some people just store theirs in the oven. Even if you are not making pizza, having the stone in the oven helps to keep the temperature even. A peel really helps too. Here’s a picture of our well-used stone and our peel on our grill.
Here is the recipe:
| Author: Daniel Lender
A Tuscan-style pizza dough, cooked on a pizza stone in a blazing hot oven or on a barbeque grill, this makes a beautiful thin and tasty crust. Serve with cooked Italian sausage, sliced red onion, fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced mushrooms, sliced black olives, fresh basil, sliced tomatoes, anchovies, dried oregano, dried red pepper flakes, sliced pepperoni, etc. Serves: 5 |
Pizza Dough |
INGREDIENTS
1/4 ounce, active dry yeast(package)
3/4 cup, warm water – 105 to 115 degrees
1 1/2 cups, unbleached flour
1/4 cup, unbleached flour – reserved
1/2 cup, semolina flour
1 teaspoon, sugar
1 teaspoon, kosher salt
1 tablespoon, extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
- Make sure that you have fresh yeast! Packaged yeast has a short shelf life.
- Dissolve the package of yeast in the warm water and let stand for 10 minutes. Heating in the microwave for about 1 minute will get the water to the proper temperature, but check with a thermometer.
- In a food processor with the metal blade inserted, combine the following: 1 ½ cups of flour, ½ cup of semolina, 1 tsp. sugar, and 1 tsp. salt. Mix well. With the motor running, slowly mix in the yeast mixture until combined. Add the 1 tbsp of olive oil to the mixture and continue mixing for 1 minute. The dough should have formed a ball. Note: Add the remaining ¼ cup of flour if it hasn’t formed a ball yet.
- Take the dough out of the processor and put onto a floured surface and knead briefly with flour until the ball is not sticky.
- Next, form the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with olive oil. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and put it in a warm place for about 1 hour. (You may then put it in the refrigerator). This can be done a day before.
- Take the dough from the refrigerator and roll it on a floured surface into a long cylinder and cut it into 5-6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place on a floured platter. Do this with all the balls and keep them covered with a damp towel.
- Place a pizza stone on a rack in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees for 1 hour prior to cooking. Alternatively place pizza stone on gas grill. Turn on burners to medium heat and heat for 1 hour prior to cooking.
- Using a rolling pin, roll one ball into a circle making a pizza crust. Now you can add the tomato sauce and your toppings and cook at 500 for about 5 to 7 minutes. Watch closely as it cooks very fast!
I’d love to find a good sauce recipe, too, as I find the jar sauce in the supermarket to be inadequate for a marvelous dough.
I have a great sauce recipe from Anne Burrell. I’ll post it in a few days.